Portable electronic devices such as smartphones and tablets are ubiquitous in the modern era. Most of these devices require both visual and tactile interaction, meaning that the user must be able to both see and touch the device in order to use it. Handheld electronic devices satisfy the tactile requirement by their nature—i.e., the devices are within reach while being held. This means that users must look toward their hands while using such a device, which has led to a variety of relatively new repetitive body motions and positions. Users must extend their arms forward and upward to be able to properly view the handheld device, and/or they must lower their gaze with their arms rested on their laps in a more relaxed position. The results of these body positions when held for prolonged periods may include arm and shoulder fatigue from arm extension, as well as hunched posture and neck fatigue from looking down toward the handheld device. Users in moving vehicles may experience motion sickness while looking down at a handheld device due in part to reduced peripheral vision of vehicle motion.
U.S. patent application publication 2009/0172884 by Semlitsch discloses an arm rest for positioning the arm of a medical patient in relation to an examination table, especially during a tomographic radioscopy examination or an operation. The arm rest includes a base plate that can be pushed under the patient, an inclined support plate extending from the base plate, and an elongated and inclined carrier element on the end of the supporting plate. The carrier element supports the arm of the patient above the examination table and uses the patient's weight to hold the arm rest in place. The arm rest is not portable and is configured for only one arm to be rested off to the side of the patient's body.